JAN/FEB 1999

VOL.4 NO.1

Feedback -- Your Comments, Criticisms and Contributions

Stephen: I have heard that Stroh in the US is being bought out by one of the other major brewers. Do you know if what effect, if any this will have on Sleeman and, of course, Upper Canada? Thanks.

-- Glen

I have no idea what it would mean for Sleeman, Glen, although I doubt very much that Pabst would be much interested in maintaining a stake in the Canadian brewery. (The company that owns Pabst, and is rumoured to be interested in buying Stroh, is licence- and contract-brewing oriented; ie: no interest in physical breweries.)

I would expect that should the sale come to pass, the Sleeman shares owned by Stroh would be offered back to the majority shareholders, but that is just speculation. Besides, the deal isn't done yet.

Stephen,

Any idea how or why I was able to buy Wicked Pete's Ale in a depanneur in downtown Montréal this week? The neck label was printed only in French! Who's importing this and will more west coast ales follow?

Thanks as always for any info you can provide.

-- Neil Kushnir

Pete's has hit at least three province's -- BC, Ontario & Québac. I assume that they have established an office in Québac, as that is the only way that a foreign brewery can sell through the depanneurs (which, for those of you who have never been to Québac, are corner stores).

Enjoy the Pete's, but don't expect this to be the tip of a flood of west coast beers into central Canada.

I'm looking to buy some of the Irish ale Smithwicks in NY state. Do you have any suggestions as to where I can find it? I'm having no luck at all. Thank you in advance.

-- Julia :-)

I'm afraid that you will have to try Canada! Sorry to say, but Smithwicks is not imported into the US, although it is widely available in my home country.

Mr. Beaumont,

Do you know of any Canadian microbreweries that are willing to ship their beer by mail to the US? I do get some Canadian micros already; Unibroue, Niagara Falls, Brasal and Big Rock are distributed in the Washington, DC area.

-- Lloyd

As someone who regularly wrangles beer samples across the border, I can tell you that it's a very difficult thing to do in either direction. I'm afraid that you're either going to have to make do with what is imported through the regular channels or make trips across the border yourself.

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